Page 16 of The Drag Race Debutante & the Detectives
“Have you figured it out yet, kitten?” Eric continued, pulling his belt free from the loops on his jeans. “Do you know why I’m going to punish you tonight?”
Her mouth pressed into a mulish line, Emily continued to glare at them. “Because I went on a date with someone else?” she guessed, and lifted one shoulder in a shrug.
Eric folded his belt in half, making sure the buckle was secured in his palm, then shook his head as though he were disappointed in her answer. “No. I’m punishing you because you gave up on us, and then you went out with someone else.”
Emily’s hands fisted by her sides, but when she opened her mouth to respond no words came out, just the sound of frustrated irritation.
“You knowingly put yourself in danger—don’t deny it—and for that alone you deserve a bloody good whipping,” Eric said, tapping his belt against the side of his leg. “But you committed one other sin tonight, one you’re guilty of committing before. One we should have put a stop to well before now.”
Finding her voice again, Emily said, “Oh? And what’s that?”
“No one—no one—calls our girl names,” Dane said. “Especially not our girl.”
Chapter Nine
“What names?” Emily’s frustration turned to confusion in the blink of an eye.
“Short, fat, boring,” Dane counted off his fingers as he listed the insults Emily had levelled at herself.
“I never said fat.”
“It was strongly implied,” Eric said, frowning at her. “Do you really think so little of yourself? So little of us? Do you honestly think we would toy with you like that? That we lied when we told you how much we adore you.”
“Did you think we faked our hard-ons when we touched you?” Dane added, and grabbed the front of his jeans, showing off another obvious erection.
“Or that we took advantage of you when we stole your kisses?” Eric added.
“We love every luscious curve of your body, baby. Every soft inch.”
“And we have missed your softness, your warmth.” Eric’s gaze bored into hers. “We’ve missed your kisses and your eagerness for our touch.”
Dane lifted his fingers to his nose and inhaled, the fingers he’d had deep inside her. “And we’ve missed your sweet scent.” His tongue flicked out and wrapped around his fingers and his eyelids fluttered closed. “Missed your intoxicating taste.”
Feeling her cheeks heat again, Emily ducked her head in an attempt to hide her reaction from them. The last thing she needed was to add fuel to their fire. “You’re not supposed to be enjoying this,” she grumbled.
“On the contrary,” Dane said. “You’re not supposed to be enjoying this. We’re going to enjoy every fucking second of it.”
Eric stepped in front of her, hooked a knuckle under her chin and lifted her face to his. His usual stoic expression greeted her, but even she couldn’t miss the warmth in his eyes as he stared down at her, or the concern in his deep voice when he spoke. “We’ve left you alone for too long, kitten, let you get in your own head for too long.” He stroked his fingertips along the edge of her jaw, the gentleness of his touch making her shiver with need. “You’ve been lying to yourself and you don’t even know it. But that stops here and now.”
“It does?” Even Emily couldn’t miss the hint of hope in her voice.
“Do you trust us?” Eric asked.
Staring into his eyes, she saw the determination and the quiet strength that always radiated from him. Then she looked to Dane and his smiling face, and saw the warmth and adoration he had never concealed from her.
Her insides shook with a jumble of emotions until she couldn’t tell one apart from another. Hope, desperation, loneliness, love.
None of it made sense.
Emily had always projected the aura of a strong and capable woman, but in reality her confidence was a façade, one that was easily dented. But the longer she stood there, debating her answer to Eric’s question, the more she realised… they already knew this about her. Had probably always known. And here she’d always thought herself clever enough to hide it from them. Apparently she was wrong.
Her men had known all along that she was a fraud… and they loved her anyway.
And she loved them. She had for ages. That’s why it had hurt so much when they had just disappeared, why she’d written them off so quickly. Better that than succumb to her heartache and let everyone see how weak she truly was.
As much as it sucked to admit, if there was a way to get past it, a way to push through all the resentment she had built up around herself, she knew this was it.
She would take her punishment.
